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Read or listen to Oral History #152.

The only person I grew up with was my mom. I never knew any grandparents or my father. The only person was my mom and some aunts on my father’s side. One thing I always tell the kids is “keep a wise head.” Sometimes people talk talk talk, but they are not listening. So I always tell my kids, “A still tongue and a wise head.” Listen before you start talking and start judging. Just listening you could get a lot from what this person is saying. If you are talking and always just want to talk talk talk, you are not thinking about what you are saying. That’s one thing that my mom used to say.

…I love the commandment, “Love thy neighbor as you love yourself.” I teach my children that. If you cannot love yourself, you cannot love your neighbor. So the first thing before you say, “Oh, I love you” — try to love yourself. So you’ll have that love to extend to other people.

My greatest wish is this. The church always says, “We are the true church,” and my kids, they go to different churches. So I’m hoping that the life that you live, and it doesn’t matter what church you go to, if you live the gospel and keep the commandments, all of us will be able to get to heaven one day. Even last night I was thinking about that. Because I have kids, and I love my kids, and they don’t come here because I think they think we worship Joseph Smith. That’s one thing I always tell people – because they always talk so much about Joseph Smith. Especially in the beginning when I just joined the church. I said, “Joseph Smith worshipped his Heavenly Father. He went and bowed down before Him.” So it is the members that went ahead and put him on a pedestal. Not he himself. So we got to remember that he went and bowed down before Heavenly Father and asked for guidance. That’s one of the things I always try to tell people. When I bear my testimony, I try to say that so people would understand it’s Heavenly Father we are here to worship, not Joseph Smith. A couple of my kids think we worship Joseph Smith. So I’m hoping one day all of us will be together as a family in heaven.